$2.5m in donations from the property industry to political parties since 2021. 97% of which has gone to National, Act & NZ First.
$2.5m in donations from the property industry to political parties since 2021. 97% of which has gone to National, Act & NZ First.
There’s also the more recent Independent Electoral Review, which including political donations/party funding: https://electoralreview.govt.nz/
The final report is due to go to the Minister in November. If it’s a National minister, the whole thing will likely go straight to the trash.
Actually, they will probably keep the referendum on longer parliamentary term… but nothing else.
Yeah that’s the one I was thinking of, I didn’ t realise they were nearly done.
I wouldn’t mind if they pushed forward longer parliamentary terms, at least that’s one recommendation that could be actually implemented.
It could be a fairly close if it went to a referendum. My problem with longer parliamentary terms is that it doesn’t seem to affect how many times a government wins re-election. So if you extend it to 4 years, you’ll regularly get governments in power for 12 years rather than 9, which means the politicians become even more comfortable/arrogant and less accountable than they are now.
If governments can make 12 year plans instead of 9 year plans, that’s a win in my book. Plus, they have even less of an excuse to not do anything.
I think if politicians need to be help more accountable, then having more regular elections probably isn’t the best way. It makes the government less stable, which gives them an excuse to not do things.
I guess I just look at countries like the UK (usually 5 year terms), and see all the same problems we have in NZ around governments not doing much, etc. So I don’t think longer terms will solve that at all. It just means you wait longer for a new government to come in, where they usually do stuff in the first term (often just the first year of their first term!) and then are too scared to do anything after that.
Do places with 5 years terms typically still get 3 terms? It’s hard to imagine a country not getting bored with the ruling party after 10 years.
Yep. The UK has basically had 2 changes of government since 1979. Obviously there have been a lot of changes of PM over that time (especially in recent times), and part of the issue is FPP. But there is a certain logic behind governments winning around 3 elections in their lifetime. Being an incumbent gives you an advantage, but over time people get a bit sick of you and vote for change. That tends to get you 3 election wins (including the first), although there’s a lot of variation. But I would expect we’ll still get 3-term governments as the norm in NZ if we move to 4 year terms.
If it goes to a referendum, I hope that is a point that gets through to people.
Interesting! Do you think the current 3 years is a good middleground?
In my view, it’s OK. I know it creates problems with govt’s trying to get things done in 1-2 years to avoid spending lots in an election year. But the importance of electoral accountability cannot be overstated.
It wouldn’t be the end of the world moving to 4 years, but I don’t think it’ll fix most of the problems supporters are arguing it will. And if you ask politicians, of course they’ll say they want longer (especially if they’re currently in power, or about to be).